The Sendloop Bloghttps://sendloop.com/blog
Everything about email marketing, running SaaS, growth and online marketingThu, 26 Mar 2015 16:01:23 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1Are All Your Emails Reaching Your Recipients?https://sendloop.com/blog/are-all-your-emails-reaching-your-recipients
https://sendloop.com/blog/are-all-your-emails-reaching-your-recipients#commentsWed, 25 Mar 2015 16:13:11 +0000http://sendloop.com/blog/?p=4874We all know how annoying it can be to lose something in the post but when it comes to marketing emails, if they aren’t getting to their final destination the results can be more far reaching.

Low deliverability rates can be frustrating and a recent report from Return Path released in September last year indicates that as many as one in six marketing emails never even make it to the recipient’s inbox, which means that low deliverability could be affecting your email marketing more than you think.

Why is this figure so high?

Most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) take the risk of spam very seriously and they employ a number of measures to protect their users from spam. Unfortunately this means that in the process a number of legitimate messages can also get filtered out and wrongly classified as junk. If this happens to you repeatedly, it can start to chip away at your reputation with the ISPs and lead to ongoing difficulties.

As well as the percentage of emails that get misclassified as spam, according to Return Path, there are a number that just go missing and never arrive anywhere. The amount of emails that go missing appear to be directly related to your location, and the location of your recipients, and even the industry you are in.

According to analysis, businesses that are in more customer focused industries have higher rates of deliverability than others. The industries that show the most success according to Return Path, are apparel and hair and beauty marketers along with financial organisations and insurance companies. The worst affected seem to be publishers and entertainment providers.

What can you do about it?

There are a few things you can do to improve your reputation as a sender and help ensure that your emails end up in your recipients’ inboxes and don’t end up marked as spam or disappear altogether. Here are a few suggestions to help you beat the one in six statistic:

Make sure you use a double opt in system at all times to ensure your emails aren’t marked as spam. It only takes a handful of people to mark you as spam to affect your reputation with the ISPs.

Keep your list clean and remove any addresses that bounce as quickly as possible. The more bounces are triggered by your emails, the lower your sender score will be.

Always use a reputable sender name and address, don’t send marketing emails from a Gmail or Hotmail account.

Sendloop users can install Sendloop’s iOS or Android app within just a few seconds. Once installed you can start monitoring your email campaign metrics including open rates, click rates and opt-out rates in real-time, with no delays.

To get started, simply download the Sendloop mobile app from the following app stores and you can take your email metrics with you wherever you go.

We hope you like our first mobile app. As always, feel free to get in touch with us to share your thoughts and stay tuned for more cool updates coming soon!

]]>https://sendloop.com/blog/introducing-sendloop-mobile-application/feed0Edit images directly in your emailhttps://sendloop.com/blog/edit-images-directly-in-your-email
https://sendloop.com/blog/edit-images-directly-in-your-email#commentsMon, 09 Feb 2015 08:50:47 +0000http://sendloop.com/blog/?p=4906When it comes to email marketing, HTML emails are the most popular format with senders and the images inside HTML emails are the most important element of a successful email marketing campaign.

We realise that when sending an HTML email, finding the right image and then editing it requires a level of technical skill which is not commonplace among email marketers. Many of our users find they are being forced to learn Adobe Photoshop and similar apps and become an expert on optimizing images if they want to send visually appealing emails.

This is why we are so excited to introduce our integration with Adobe Creative Cloud(r)! Now, you can edit your images with just a single click when creating your email. You can apply filters, crop them, mask them, optimize them, add stickers, and do lots of other things without the need for any technical wizardry.

When creating your email using our very easy to use drag-n-drop email builder, simply hover your mouse over the image you want to edit. You will see the “Edit” icon:

Simply click that “Edit” button and the image editor will open. Using this editor, you can adjust the brightness, contrast, saturation, enhance the image, apply effects, add frames or stickers, add text and draw new shapes. All this and more can be done without any third party apps or technical skills:

To see what can be done with our easy-to-use email builder and image editor, watch the quick one-minute video below:

]]>https://sendloop.com/blog/edit-images-directly-in-your-email/feed0How will Amazon WorkMail Affect Your Email Marketing?https://sendloop.com/blog/how-will-amazon-workmail-affect-your-email-marketing
https://sendloop.com/blog/how-will-amazon-workmail-affect-your-email-marketing#commentsThu, 05 Feb 2015 13:54:33 +0000http://sendloop.com/blog/?p=4886Last week Amazon announced that it will be expanding into email services with the launch of a new cloud based service known as WorkMail. This service is similar to Gmail in that it is hosted in the cloud but unlike Gmail it is aimed mostly at businesses and integrates with most web clients including Microsoft Outlook with Amazon providing the back end support and storage on its servers.

What are the benefits of WorkMail?

WorkMail is an appealing solution for organisations for a number of reasons. It’s low cost at only $4 per inbox, easy to scale up and down and can take much of the time consuming and technical work of managing exchange servers and other in-house systems away from businesses and organisations.

One of the main selling points of WorkMail is its increased security and encryption. Companies using WorkMail will be able to control the way that stored messages are encrypted and even nominate a region within Amazon’s network for them to be stored in. This is likely to appeal to security conscious businesses that may have so far resisted using cloud based email for fear of losing their privacy.

How will WorkMail impact email marketers?

WorkMail is very new and we probably won’t see any immediate changes but as time goes on and increasing numbers of businesses adopt WorkMail for their email platform there could be an impact on email marketing and deliverability, especially for B2B marketers.

The majority of consumers still prefer to use personal email addresses for marketing emails so unless they start using WorkMail at home, its likely they will continue using their current email provider to receive marketing emails, at least for now.

As workmail expands and the uptake among businesses increases, any changes are more likely to impact B2B marketers than B2C marketers as the service will be primarily used by enterprises rather than individuals.

Every email service provider comes with its own set of filters and anti spam provisions which will need to be taken into consideration to avoid impacting deliverability rates. It is probable that WorkMail will implement a filtering system like Gmail’s promotions tab and the more recent Microsoft Clutter filter and this could have an impact on email deliverability and visibility.

With Amazon stepping up to challenge the big email providers it’s likely that they will become a force to be reckoned with in the email marketing arena over time and as their email service evolves we will see changes in the future.

]]>https://sendloop.com/blog/how-will-amazon-workmail-affect-your-email-marketing/feed0Sendloop is connected to 250+ apps with Zapierhttps://sendloop.com/blog/sendloop-is-connected-to-250-apps-with-zapier
https://sendloop.com/blog/sendloop-is-connected-to-250-apps-with-zapier#commentsTue, 27 Jan 2015 23:01:48 +0000http://sendloop.com/blog/?p=4844In today’s world, we all use multiple apps to help us with our day to day needs, like sending email, managing our customers, handling customer support, chatting with our website visitors, organising meetings, purchasing online and much more.

Whilst having all these different solutions at the tip of your finger is great for your business, there is one thing in particular that many business owners find challenging. How do you keep all that data synched across the different solutions you’re using?

Even though the majority of apps have APIs to let you connect with your other services, linking them together can be a fiddly and time consuming process requiring a certain degree of programming knowledge, experience and skills that the average business owner may not have.

This is where Zapier comes into play. By removing the programming skills requirement for integrating different apps with each other it solves a really big problem that many business owners face.

We are proud to be one of the apps in Zapier system. Our inclusion in Zapier’s system means you can link your Sendloop account with another 250+ web apps easily, with a few clicks of the mouse, and without programming a single line of code.

For example, if you have a Shopify powered e-commerce website you can easily link your Sendloop account to the Shopify e-commerce website and populate your mail lists with customers purchasing through your website.

Or you can simply integrate your Wufoo powered online forms with your Sendloop account and subscribe online form applicants to your mail lists instantly, without any programming.

What about posting a special note to your Highrise CRM accounts whenever someone opens an email you have sent to them through Sendloop? Or posting a message to your Slack channel when a new visitor subscribes to your website mail list powered by Sendloop?

All this and more is possible with Zapier. You just need to login to your Zapier account and start linking your Sendloop account with other 250+ apps available on Zapier.

]]>https://sendloop.com/blog/sendloop-is-connected-to-250-apps-with-zapier/feed0Introducing Sub-User Accountshttps://sendloop.com/blog/introducing-sub-user-accounts
https://sendloop.com/blog/introducing-sub-user-accounts#commentsWed, 21 Jan 2015 14:39:28 +0000http://sendloop.com/blog/?p=4856At Sendloop we believe in listening to our users and responding to their needs, and we are very excited to unveil one of the most popular feature requests we have for a while. We have been working on this feature for the last 4 months and we are happy to announce that it’s now available to all Sendloop users.

What are sub-user accounts?

From now on, you can create sub-user accounts for your colleagues, customers, friends or anyone else you want to have access to your lists or email campaigns. Once created, these sub-user accounts can login and send email campaigns, access authorised lists and manage their own records.

What about privileges and limits?

For each sub-user account you create, you can specify which lists they have access to and whether or not they have permission to browse subscribers. You can also put their scheduled email campaigns on approval before sending them.

I’m a digital agency owner, can I provide a rebranded email marketing service to my customers?

We are almost there. Soon you will be able to re-brand your Sendloop account and provide email marketing services to your customers, under your own brand, with your own pricing tiers.

I want to verify each outgoing email from my sub-user accounts. Is this possible?

Absolutely! There is an optional feature which if enabled means that your sub-user accounts will not be able to send emails without your final approval.

Do I have to upgrade to a monthly plan to use this feature?

Absolutely not. You can still use our sub-user account feature while enjoying our free or pay-as-you-go plans.

I have an existing Sendloop account. Can I also set my account as a sub-user account for another account?

Yes! You don’t need to create a new sub-user account. Simply add your registered email address as a sub-user account on another Sendloop account and next time you login, we will ask you which account you would like to use.

We hope you like our new feature. It’s been a complicated one but we think it’s worth every single hour we have spent on it. We hope to improve this sub-user account feature a lot more in the coming weeks and months, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback. Feel free to tweet, write a comment below or contact us directly via hello@sendloop.com to share your thoughts.

]]>https://sendloop.com/blog/introducing-sub-user-accounts/feed0Your Email Marketing Deliverability Checklisthttps://sendloop.com/blog/your-email-marketing-deliverability-checklist
https://sendloop.com/blog/your-email-marketing-deliverability-checklist#commentsTue, 20 Jan 2015 13:05:08 +0000http://sendloop.com/blog/?p=4789Email marketing is a very effective way to grow your business, but if your emails are landing in your recipients’ spam folders instead of their inboxes you’re not going to get the results you want. Even as a legitimate email marketer, there are some common problems which can lead to your emails being wrongly marked as spam and this can affect your deliverability rates at the time you send your emails and well into the future.

It’s important to avoid doing anything that could negatively effect your deliverability if you want your email marketing efforts to work. Here’s a checklist that every email marketer should use before they hit send to help ensure that their marketing emails have the best possible chance of landing in their recipients’ inboxes and not anywhere else.

1. Are there any spam trigger words in the subject line?

Spam trigger words are words or sometimes phrases which are commonly used by spammers and are therefore likely to see your email filtered straight into the junk folder. Lists of spam trigger words vary slightly between different ISPs and they are constantly being updated. If you want to keep your delivery rates healthy overall, it’s best to avoid using these words.

2. Does your email contain two to three external links?

You want your recipients to be able to click on links and go straight to your website from your email but too many links within the text of an email message can get you on the wrong side of the ISPs. Make sure you have no more than two or three links in each email before you hit send.

3. Is there a clear unsubscribe link?

To be compliant with spam regulations, your email should always have a clear unsubscribe link so that your recipients can stop receiving future emails if they don’t want to hear from you any more. Make sure your unsubscribe link is positioned clearly so it can be easily found.

4. Is it clear who the email is from?

Sender information is essential for every email that you send, not only to keep on the right side of spam legislation, but so that your recipients know who their emails are from. As long as they trust you and have agreed to receive your emails, making yourself known as the sender can only be of benefit to your deliverability and open rates.

5. Are you regularly maintaining your email list?

Repeatedly being marked as spam can affect your overall deliverability rates therefore it’s important that you regularly monitor your email list and prune it as necessary to remove people who who aren’t opening your emails. Continuing to send emails to people who don’t want to receive them can increase the chances they will mark you as spam and affect your overall deliverability rates.

Maximising your deliverability should be at the core of any email marketing strategy if you want to get results. Make sure your emails are optimised for deliverability and you’ll have the best possible chance of ending up in your recipients’ inboxes and not their spam folders.

]]>https://sendloop.com/blog/your-email-marketing-deliverability-checklist/feed0Subject Line Personalisation and it’s Effect On Email Open Rateshttps://sendloop.com/blog/subject-line-personalisation-and-its-effect-on-email-open-rates
https://sendloop.com/blog/subject-line-personalisation-and-its-effect-on-email-open-rates#commentsMon, 12 Jan 2015 11:35:52 +0000http://sendloop.com/blog/?p=4820Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last year you’ve almost certainly heard about the power of personalisation.

Personalisation can make a huge difference to your marketing efforts, whether you are using email, advertising or any other form of marketing. With technology advancing at a rapid rate, we are finding more sophisticated ways to personalise our emails and tailor them specifically to the individual user, but what difference does this really make?

At Sendloop we recently conducted an in depth analysis of email subject lines to find out what impact personalisation really has when it comes to email open rates.

When it comes to getting your marketing emails opened, it all starts with the subject line. A good subject line can make a big difference to your open rates, while a less than fantastic subject line could leave your emails languishing in the unopened pile, or even affect your deliverability in a negative way.

One great way to help improve your email subject lines is to make use of personalisation, but how much personalisation should you be using? Is it enough to use a person’s name, or do you need to go more in depth than that?

In an effort to find out, last month we analysed 180 million emails sent by Sendloop users to discover what impact personalisation, as well as a few other subject line strategies, really have on deliverability and open rates.

The analysis

We compared the open and deliverability rates of 180 million emails based on their subject lines. Subject lines were grouped into four categories:

1. No personalisation. In these emails, the same subject line was sent to all recipients.

2. Personalised with just the recipient’s name. In these emails the recipient’s name was used in the subject line but no other form of personalisation took place.

3. In depth personalisation. In these emails, the subject line was personalised according to the recipient’s profile.

4. Subject lines which used special characters and upper case words.

The results

The results showed that personalisation definitely does pay off. The emails which were personalised using just the recipient’s name showed a 5.2% higher open rate than those with no personalisation at all, and the emails with the in depth personalisation showed a massive 11.8% higher open rate.

On the flip side, the emails which used special characters and upper case words (techniques which are highly popular with spammers) had an open rate of 2.9% less than the standard, non personalised emails.

Personalisation can make a big difference to your email open rates, even if you keep it simple and just use a person’s name in the subject line. If you really want to give your open rates a boost, try more in-depth personalisation. Personalisation is simple and easy and well worth a try!

]]>https://sendloop.com/blog/subject-line-personalisation-and-its-effect-on-email-open-rates/feed0How Your Email Subject Lines Can Affect Your Open Rateshttps://sendloop.com/blog/how-your-email-subject-lines-can-affect-your-open-rates
https://sendloop.com/blog/how-your-email-subject-lines-can-affect-your-open-rates#commentsTue, 30 Dec 2014 14:53:42 +0000http://sendloop.com/blog/?p=4753The subject line is the most important part of your email but how often have you skipped over devising a great subject line in favour of an attractive design or detailed content?

Whatever you are trying to achive with your email marketing it’s essential that you pay attention to your subject line if you want to keep open rates high.

How do subject lines affect open rates?

The subject line is the first and possibly only thing your recipients see when your email lands in their inbox. This means that if you want to entice them to open your email, it has to be interesting and compelling enough that they want to click on it and read more.

Over the years plenty of different organisations have spent time researching the impact that different subject lines have on open rates and found a direct correlation between certain types of subject lines and high (or low) open rates.

What to avoid in email subject lines

When it comes to getting your emails opened, the first thing you need to do is steer clear of using spam words or characters in your subject line that could see your email sent straight to junk mail. Words like “free” and “buy now” are a no-go, as well as punctuation techniques like using all capitals and excessive exclamation points.

Most ISPs have a list of ‘spam’ words which trigger an automatic filtering system and get them diverted straight into the junk mail folder.

Even after your email gets into your recipients’ inbox, what you say in the subject line will make a big difference to whether or not it gets opened. Here are three things to avoid:

Being too flashy, clever or funny as this can actually have the opposite effect

Unless you are targeting very specifically to your recipient, avoid making your subject lines too long.

Repetitive subject lines. If you’re sending email reminders for an upcoming event or promotion, make sure you keep the subject lines original if you want to get the best possible results.

How to create subject lines that get more opens

As well as knowing what not to do, there are a few tried and tested techniques that can help you improve your open rates. Here are three of them:

Localisation. Providing useful, tailored information for someone is a definite way to encourage them to open an email. Although using a recipient’s name has not been shown to make that much of a difference to open rates, localisation by providing a place name can be highly effective.

Be relatable. If possible, try to create a subject line that relates to a problem or experience your recipient might be having. If your email contains something that’s relevant to them, they are far more likely to open it than if it’s irrelevant or generic.

Be mysterious. A little bit of mystery can go a long way in a subject line and if you can create a sense of intrigue you can stand a good chance of getting your open rates up. One great way to do this is to pose a question in your subject line.

Increasing your email opens may take a bit of time and effort but a great subject line is a good start and can get your email marketing heading in the right direction.

]]>https://sendloop.com/blog/how-your-email-subject-lines-can-affect-your-open-rates/feed04 Email Marketing Trends You Shouldn’t Ignore in 2015https://sendloop.com/blog/4-email-marketing-trends-you-shouldnt-ignore-in-2015
https://sendloop.com/blog/4-email-marketing-trends-you-shouldnt-ignore-in-2015#commentsMon, 15 Dec 2014 16:18:44 +0000http://sendloop.com/blog/?p=47212014 is starting to draw to a close and for many businesses this means getting ready for next year. In 2015, as in other years, it’s predicted that email marketing will play a major part in the marketing strategy for most businesses although new trends along with developments in technology could lead to a few changes in the way we market through email next year.

It’s important for any business to stay current. Using the same strategy year after year isn’t likely to get you the results you want from your email marketing. If you want to make the most of your email marketing in 2015, here are some trends and developments you should take advantage of.

Micro-targeting

The use of data for audience targeting has really come into its own in 2014 and this looks like it’s going to evolve in the future as we get even more sophisticated ways of gathering data and interpreting it. Next year, email marketers will be able to customise email content to suit niche target markets and even individuals for an intensely micro targeted and personalised experience.

This includes the use of dynamic content in emails which means that they can be tailored to suit each individual recipient based on data gathered previously.

Automation

Integration across platforms is now easier than ever thanks to developments in technology and to really be effective, your marketing strategy should be streamlined from your email through to your website.

Automation can save you time and many email service providers including Sendloop make marketing automation easy to manage from one place, with the option of designing, writing and sending your marketing emails, not to mention tracking the results from a single dashboard.

Mobile marketing

Mobile use is up again this year and the use of mobile devices to access the internet finally overtook desktop PC use in early 2014. This means that if your marketing emails and website aren’t yet optimised for mobile you run a serious risk of being left behind as fewer and fewer people use desktop computers to look up websites, read their emails and make purchases online.

With more customers than ever using their mobile to make direct purchases, now is the time to make sure any landing pages that your marketing emails link to are also mobile optimised to make it easy for mobile readers to buy from you then and there.

Data

Marketers of all shapes and sizes can’t afford to ignore the volume of data that’s now available but a surprising number don’t make use of it. With the right tools you can now find information about your customers, their buying habits, what pages they’ve viewed on your site and how they have interacted with previous emails.

Data driven email marketing campaigns have been shown to improve open and click through rates, and engage recipients more readily than the more traditional ‘blast’ approach. Next year will see more businesses making use of data in their email marketing, which means that the businesses who don’t may find themselves at a definite disadvantage.

Don’t let your marketing fall behind in 2015! Instead, take advantage of developing trends to stay at the forefront of technology and drive your business forward in the new year.